The Rising
by Seeker Reveal
Summary: They are rising... Our Heroic hedgehog and his friends must face the might of the zombie army at the heart of their creation! This is where it all began, this is where the master plan took shape. Is this where it all ends?
1. At Hell's Gate

**"_Embrace the Trinity, and true power will engulf you."_**

He kept on running, the horde constantly closing in on him. He looked back with his furry bangs drenched in sweat covering his face, breathing heavily as the faces of the damned followed him with screams and moans staying inside his head as they looped over and over again.

His feet constantly touched the ground, never slowing down as he ran through the lowly depths of the jungle, swaying past vines as his eyes were looking around with panic streaming across his whole body. He looked back for a moment to see her image, running among them, terrifying him as her mouth was drooling with blood, blood that leaked onto her lovely dress… her beautiful dress.

Then his mind snapped back to reality, seeing that it was just another one of them. The dislocated jaw and burning yellow eyes began to remind him of how absurd it was to mistake one for her. Where were the others? He barely thought of it, maybe they were dead, then would they join the zombies?

Shaking his head as he got into a full out sprint, panting heavily as his luck ran out, coming to a dead end where a huge wall of dirt that was the support of a higher cliff. However, he began to spin his tail around in a swaying motion before they began to spin faster and faster, becoming somewhat like propellers.

He gave himself a jump to get off the ground, flying up onto the cliff as the strain on his tails made him wince in pain. He looked back again to see if they were still following him.

A zombie that seemed to be only bones jumped up as it landed perfectly, tilting its head up as it stared at Tails. It wore a strange sort of towel on its head as it screamed extremely louder than any other zombie, making the two tailed fox cover his ears as the monster charged forward at an incredible speed.

Quickly the creature struck, cutting a small incision into the fox's forehead as he yelped from the pain, being followed by a flailing punch to the side. The distraught fox kicked at it, pushing it away for only a moment as it recovered from the blow.

Making use of the little time he had, Tails ran as fast as he could from the screaming zombie, running into an old temple ruins, walking forward without noticing the zombies that crowded in it.

He noticed too late as they began to hiss and screech at him, slowly walking through the room he had failed to see was actually a mud pit inside the temple ruins. He stopped too late as he stepped onto a pressurized plate at the entrance, revealing another one from the mud as a wall of spikes sprang up and blocked the zombies off.

Seeing his luck, the fox ran through the pit, stepping on the plates as they raised more and more to create a path through the temple. He exited out the south side, descending down some steps as he saw a bridge leading across a huge waterfall leading into a huge chasm below.

But as bad as his luck was, an assortment of flames began to shoot out form the ground, growing bigger and bigger as flesh ridden hands struck out from the ground that they sprung from. The fox only looked in horror as a new zombie ascended from the ground; a mobian fox that's body was badly burning, showing almost all of its bones and inside organs. Its eyes gleamed even brighter with the flames surrounding them, growling deeply as it was now fully emerged.

It growled menicingly as it walked slowly towards the kitsune, leaving small patches of fire behind it as its feat made a soft squishing noise as it walked. Tails backed away from it as the zombie slowly walked onto the wooden bridge, the flames starting to leap onto the easily burnable wood as he only looked back to see even more concern.

The horde of zombies had followed him out of the mud pit, running as they were only a few yards away from him. They were surrounding him in, blocking off all his paths and since flying was really not an option now, he was doomed. Clinching his fists, he closed his eyes as he strained them tightly.

Hoping he would wake up from this nightmare.

He tried not to think of it, hoping that he would at least die quickly. He heard them screaming and hissing as they began to feast on flesh, tearing through the tender meat of mobian corpses and biting down on the red covered organs and muscles.

Amidst it all, he couldn't stop thinking of her. Of all times and places, why did she show up here? Was he going insane? He laughed, unsure how he could do such an action now that he's dead.

Until he opened his eyes and saw that the zombies had scattered, leaving behind a red mess of a former person. He was startled at first, but then ran up to the body, checking to see if the person was still alive, although he knew they were probably dead.

But he was even more startled, looking at the corpse he rolled it over as the blood wasn't covering most of what was underneath. He watched with his mouth open, seeing his own body lying in his arms as the eyes were closed and the cold feeling of death was present where he was standing.

Then his corpse opened its eyes, revealing the red iris that it held. It began to utter a small chuckle as it stared at Tails, beginning to cry as it pulled its head into the young kits chest. Unsure of what to do, Tails only rubbed the back of his self's head as he looked around for the zombies.

Then he yelped as he pushed the copied image of himself, grabbing his chest as the creature had bitten him. It only laughed a terrible laugh that came to sound like his, but awfully distorted and demonic. He cringed as he store back at his chest, noticing that the bite was beginning to bleed.

The clone licked its lips, looking at Tails with a lustful stare. It slowly crawled on its four legs as he growled while following him. Tails began to crawl away from it, pulling himself away with his arms as the crazed fox behind him followed closely, whispering his name as he chuckled a soothing tune.

"La la la la, la la la…" It kept singing and following behind him as it began to walk on its two legs. Tails did the same, feeling all his energy come back as he began to sprint away from the clone of himself. It followed him as he jumped over logs and threw more vines out of the way.

He didn't want to look back anymore; he wanted to leave it behind, all of it. Why was he connecting this with her? He just wanted to move on with his life, but that seemed easier said than done. His own eyes began to get watery with tears, stopping in his tracks as he kneeled down and rubbed his eyes.

He turned his head to see behind him, expecting his death to follow behind him. But, what he saw was beyond what he really expected.

"C-Cosmo…" He stuttered, still teary as he stayed there, watching her radiant figure walking towards him.

She didn't speak, only smiled as she kneeled down with him and gave him a warm embrace. They hugged as Tails only cried more, soaking his tears into her leaf like dress. Sniffing, he pulled back as he stared into her eyes, and brought his mouth close to hers, going for that kiss that he always wanted…

_Then he woke up._

A cold chill ran up his spine as he blinked consecutively, staring around him as he remembered his bearing. The blue hedgehog beside him, the red Echidna sitting across, and the brown fox still driving as he sighed a little bit of relief when he rubbed the crispy flakes of dust off of his eyes.

He noticed he had his head lying against Sonic's chest the whole time, shrugging the feeling off that he did anything wrong. He stretched his arms out as he yawned loudly, alerting the doctor who was driving that he was finally awake.

"Hello sleepy head, did you enjoy your nap on Sonic's lap?" He sarcastically asked the young fox.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Edward." Tails said as he stood up, unable to contain the blush that came across his cheeks. He wasn't very good at hiding his embarrassment.

"Ah, do not think I didn't see it, because I did. It was actually fairly cute… which I don't like… normally." Edward coughed as he uttered near the end. "Anyway, I hope you had good dreams, because we're almost at the facility."

"Good dreams…" Tails mumbled, trying not to remember the nightmare that suddenly turned into a paradise in the end. "Cosmo… why are you haunting me?"

"Excuse me?" Edward asked, turning his head around to look at the fox that now seemed to be lost in his thoughts. "Are you talking to yourself?"

Tails didn't answer specifically, just nodding his head as he sat back down. The fox wanted to ask so many questions, so many about how this started and how to stop it, but his own terrible memories had to start revisiting him again.

Richtofhen gave out a hefty yawn, giving the fake illusion that he was getting tired, but when in reality he was just bored from driving for so long. It had been hours and hours of straight driving, and avoiding the patrol along the highway close to Mobotropolis wasn't easy. Especially when you're driving one of their armored vehicles.

"So, Mister Prower, would you kindly wake up the other individuals we have carried along?" Knowing full well of their names.

Tails once again nodded, bringing his arms over the sleeping hedgehog beside him and started to shake the blue blur.

Sonic grumbled as the kit shook him all over, starting to mumble out some weird phrases as the young fox became tired of this and simply pulled him onto the floor, making a loud thump as he landed hard.

"Ow, what the he-"Sonic stopped as he saw Tails staring right at his face, carefully getting up as he rubbed his back. "A bit of a rude awakening, don't you think?"

"Sure Sonic, let's say that." Tails slyly replied to his older brother.

"Oh, my turn to wake up the Echidna." Edward shouted to the back as he suddenly increased the speed on the BTR, making both Sonic and Tails hold on as they shouted back in protest.

"Edward, slow down!"

But the brown fox did not listen, the Echidna still asleep as the vehicle went blazing up the hill, taking a large branch off of a tree as he slammed into another with full force, making all of them surge forward as they hit the front inside and hurt their heads real badly.

Of course, Knuckles woke up as he hit the wall, cursing aloud as he appeared to be more agitated than the rest with Richtofhen.

"What the hell is wrong with you, you insane lunatic!" Knuckles shouted into the Foxes face, as he wiped off some blood that seemed to drip from his nose.

"What's the point of driving if there can't be any thrills?" He insanely laughed, still cackling as he got up and started to climb out of the BTR.

"Where are you going?" Sonic asked, coughing and wheezing as he steadily recovered from the crash.

Edward didn't answer as he climbed to the top of the vehicle, jumping down onto the ground as he let out a small grunt from the impact. He stood straight as he began to wipe some dirt off of his shoulder, looking towards the facility only a few yards away from them.

"It's been too long since I was last here, so much work I didn't get to complete. Silly Maxis, maybe if you let me stay, you wouldn't be dead… if you really are, anyway." He talked to himself, caring not that the hedgehog and his friends heard all of his talking.

"Edward, this is the place? Looks like a prison, are you sure it's-"

"You're not the first one to make that observation, considering the facility was once used for that purpose. But, G.U.N found it and repurposed it for research and development of the MDT teleporter." Edward interrupted Sonic. "There are four different MDT's in there, one of which is a more sophisticated model from the other three which simply connect to the center."

"Uh… what? You're kind of sounding like Tails." Knuckles said as he jumped down onto the ground.

"Shut up Knuckles, I don't it that much." Tails snapped at the Echidna, surprised at him being so touchy.

Edward did not wait for them this time, seemingly lost in his mindful of schemes and plans to initiate at the facility, he began running up to the front gate of Geisteskranken and finally, his master plan was beginning to come into play.

"Hurry up; I don't want to waste another moment." He gestured for them to follow.

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles followed the crazy fox towards the tall standing gate blocking the main entrance of the facility. To the right of the metal coated gate was a small panel of some sort with flickering lights and a little keypad on it.

The doctor walked up to the panel, sighing as he was not very fond of all this typing and such. "Why does there always have to be button combinations? So trivial, so annoying, but at least it's simple."

After typing in some random sort of numbers from the look of it, a green light showed up on the panel, a voice sounding out as it said _"Password accepted."_

"Wunderbar, now we can go and-"

"_Retina scan required. Place scan eye over the designated area to the left hand side, please avoid moving while scan is in progress."_

"Oh… these are so annoying! Why so many security measures? Did Maxis really have to install all this?" Richtofhen complained with an irritated tone. "No matter, just have to scan my eye…"

With that, the doctor leaned forward as he situated himself right over the left hand side of the panel, looking straight at a small red light protruding out as it began moving over his entire eye. The scanning continued for about ten more seconds before the scanner went back into the panel and the voice reinitiated.

"_Retina scan complete. Welcome back to Geisteskranken, Doctor Edward. We've missed you."_

"Is that it? Can we go in now?" Sonic asked as he walked up behind the brown fox, who just leered at the machine with a hint of suspicion.

"I wasn't the only one to hear that… was I? I don't remember the machine saying we've missed you." Edward took note of the odd response. "Maybe it's a bug. Yeah, that's probably it."

"Wait, that doesn't explain how the voice system would just say-"

"NO MORE DELAYS, MILES!" Richtofhen shouted to interrupt the young kit, making him refrain from telling his opinion.

The gate opened up slowly, sliding to the right as a low sounding alarm blared off with its departure. The group walked into the courtyard, looking around the entire area as they saw the former facility now in ruins.

Tails took notice of the big fountain close to one of the research labs to the left, water still flowing out from it as the pool below it was filled a crimson red. He shivered at the thought of what happened there.

They walked along a small granite path until they reached the front doors, wooden in nature, but strongly reinforced by metal in the back. Richtofhen grabbed onto the handle and turned it, expecting for it to stop and inform him it was locked, but he found that the handle turned all the way and he carefully pushed the creaking door open.

Stepping inside, he placed his hand against the dirty wall of the low light room. It was a small room, another pair of doors in front of them as there were two stairs beside both left and right walls. Three pictures were situated inside the frames hanging off the walls, all of them that held a blank void, as if the images disappeared from them.

"Strange, there used to be some… never mind." Edward said as he passed the thought by.

"So, we're here. Now what?" Sonic asked, tired of this foxes excuses to ignore them when it came to this.

"I'm glad you asked. You see, the technology developed here is unique in its own way. The teleporters, as I've think I said before, are the reason for the creation of the zombies. Now, if we take that into account, we should be able to destroy the zombies by using that which created them." Richtofhen explained.

"How do we use these teleporters to stop the zombies?" Tails asked.

"You always have to ask the hard questions, Miles. Sadly, I have no idea." The fox bluntly pointed out, laughing as the rest had just found out they'd been tricked into this for nothing.

"Alright, look." Knuckles said as he grabbed the brown fox by the collar, lifting him against the wall as he readied his fist for the appropriate action. "If you really brought us here for no reason at all, I'm going too-"

"Relax Echidna; I never said I was done with helping you three." Richtofhen managed to mutter with that sly grin still on his face, beginning to get paler as the Echidna choked him more.

"Let him go, Knux." Sonic said to his tempered friend, who obliged and dropped the maniac.

"Alright Edward, you better tell us what you're planning to do, and no more secretive bullshit." Knuckles pointed his finger and cursed at the fox.

"I do have some sort of an idea on how to use the teleporters to destroy the undead menace…" He spoke with pride. "Of course, there will be work to do here. If teleporters are all linked up, then we should be done here incredibly fast."

"How fast?" Tails asked, shivering as he stood behind Sonic. "I don't like this place… It has an odd feeling…"

"Probably just the element I injected in you to ensure that you would ob- hey, am I mumbling again? I'm mumbling again, don't listen to me, the crazy doctor here, ha-ha…" He chuckled nervously, smiling maliciously as he pushed the second doors open and walked into the facility.

"Oh boy… another adventure. It hasn't been that long, but already I'm pretty sick of this." Knuckles complained.

"Richtofhen said this would be fast." Sonic told Knuckles.

"Isn't that what he said at Station Square? I don't know how long we were there, but it felt like an eternity."

"Good point." Sonic agreed. "What do you think Tails?"

"He's waiting for the second coming second coming again." Tails spoke with a cold tone.

"Huh?"

"I… I don't know; let's just follow Richtofhen until this is over." Tails mumbled under his breath, unable to get rid of that chilling feeling. "He's the only one who knows what he's doing here."

"Wonder if that's a good thing or a bad thing." Knuckles joked.

"Hello? Are you three coming in here? There's a lot of space for you to come inside, and look, there's power! Isn't that just wunderbar?" Edward called them.

"You mean, wonderful?" Sonic replied back.

"Yes, this is wonderful. Considering the luck we've had in everything being operational here will make my master plan much easier to execute. Now, we'll just need to head through these security doors towards the mainframe, then we'll-"

"_Warning, power levels critical. Shutting… down…"_

Edward stood there for a moment, twitching a little as his face was going through mixed feelings. Anger, frustration, annoyance, mostly the ones that made him pissed off in the end.

Then, he just stood straight, took a deep breath, coughed before looking up towards the three heroes' behind him and said "Well, everything can't always go according to plan, hm?"

Now that they all stood within the theatre room of Geisteskranken, looking around as they tried to get familiar with the surroundings.

Suddenly, the entrance doors closed shut, with loud laughing noise sounding throughout the entire facility, sending a small quiver of fear down the bones of our hero's.

"_Welcome home, Edward. Looks like you've brought some friends… how fun this is going to be."_

"That voice… Miles, are you saying that?" Edward said, noticing the resemblance of the tone sounding like the kits, with a little more depth to it.

"No, how could I be talking like that?" Tails answered, shifting awkwardly as he heard the distant moans of the zombies starting to draw in.

"Well, things just took a turn for the worst, and all we get are these pistols now." Knuckles complained, slinging out the M9 as he grumbled incoherently.

"Don't worry; we just need to get to the mainframe. After we get the power back on, we must reactivate all the teleporters and we win the game!" Richtofhen told them.

"_Let's play our game… starting with __**ROUND 1!"**_


	2. Light in the Dark

"_**Tragedy, loss, death, all these will encase your very being as you walk in the shadows of your former home, Edward. This place belongs to the dead, as will the world soon be. NOW MY MINIONS WILL DEVOUR YOUR SOUL!"**_

"Who is screaming?" Sonic asked as the voice boomed so loudly, sending a chill down his spine as he could hear the resemblance to Tails voice.

"He is so angry, and so insane… just like me!" Richtofhen giggled to himself. "Oh, how I do adore him, considering how much he's grown from a mere test subject."

"Who are you talking about? Answer me, Edward!" Sonic shouted the question at the unbearably fanatical Doctor.

"Oh hush now, you will see him soon enough. You all will see him, I know we will."

"So anyway, we better get the power back on. The sooner we finish this mess, the better." Knuckles brought the attention towards the objective at hand.

"I agree with Knuckles, what about you Edward?" Tails asked.

"I think we should get to work, while solving the mysteries that lie before us." The brown fox slyly suggested to them. "Oh, and getting all of my old equipment from here would be a **BIG** help."

"Whatever. I just know I'm not going to die from some brainless corpse trying to kill me." Knuckles said as he loaded the M9 and eagerly looked around the four windows in the room.

"Damn, this place seems… pretty big." Sonic rubbed the back of his head as he spoke.

The theater room of Geisteskranken was in ruins from how Richtofhen remembered it. The ceiling was filled with holes as the rubble was covering most, if not all of the seats filtering along the rows.

The stage was large, spanning across the back of the back of the theater. A thick, red curtain ran across the center, blocking off whatever may have been hidden behind it as splatters of blood ran across the floor.

There was one window on the stage, towards the left side as it sat directly across from the podium on the stage. Tails ran up to the window, checking his pistol as he made sure it was working before looking through for the zombies.

Two windows were across from each other at the base of the stage. To the right side, beside the thin looking gray door was the window, covered by wooden panels as it made a sort of barricade. Richtofhen giggled as he walked up to it, wiping a bit of saliva off his muzzle as he grinned while looking through the spaces in between the boards.

The one of the left side was right over a set of chairs, having Sonic jump over them as he watched the path that the zombies would be likely coming from.

The final window was across from the stage and close to the entrance doors. To the side it was, and that was the window reserved for Knuckles. He grunted, seeing the gleaming eyes of the undead as they started their march towards them.

To the right was the hallway leading to the storage and kitchen area, while turning left at the end of that hall would take you to the offices. To the left was the laboratory section, where all the tests on zombies and other specific things were done.

"Come my children, come to your death." Richtofhen amused himself by taunting them.

"Ha-ha… they all die…" Tails mumbled under his breath, shaking his head as he seemed a little dizzy.

The first zombie made it to a window, once a mobian hedgehog as the creatures eyes now showed little of its former life. Sonic wondered how this could happen to someone, if it had a life once, or was a victim of a cruel fate?

Sonic had many things to ponder, but he kept them in his head as he pressed down on the trigger and blew the creatures head off, sending tremendous amounts of blood and flesh all over the wooden boards.

"They sure are messy." Sonic complained about the excessive amount of blood that always seemed to show up.

"It must be the decaying that makes their flesh so weak and easy to… penetrate." The doctor replied as he followed with a crazy laugh. "But seriously, the decay is why they're limbs always fly off."

"Got to hand it to Richtofhen, always giving an explanation for the un-explained." Knuckles shouted as he grabbed one of the zombies at his window by the head and smashed it against the boards. "Your heads are so easy to crush, you sure you're the predators, zombies?"

"Oh Knuckles, killing them in such a brutal and quick way, shame on you. They deserve a slow and painful one." Richtofhen criticized the Echidna.

Edward stood back as two zombies crept up to the window he stood by; moaning as they firmly grasped onto the wooden boards and ripped them off one by one. The zombies finished removing the barricade as the first one decided to climb over and go for the doctor. The other followed in its footsteps.

"So eager, aren't you? I will satisfy your hunger… by death!" Richtofhen shouted as he gripped the small combat knife from out of his coat and stabbed it directly into the zombie's eye, making it scream as splotches of blood began to spill onto the floor and some of Edwards's fur. "I can feel your blood, soaking into my fur… ja, it feels so… nice."

He chuckled madly as he brought the knife out from its eye socket, stabbing it once again, but this time in the stomach as he let it fall to the ground and watched the next one walk forward.

"Oh, another one to play with? You zombies are so unorthodox, trying to kill your master."

As the doctor had his fun, Tails watched as the rotten corpse walked towards his window, hissing loudly as it started to pull the boards out. The young fox hesitated, raising the pistol and looking through the iron sights as he shot the creature once in the shoulder.

The zombie moaned as it grasped its arm, eyeing the kit as it glared with deep hatred. Unknowingly, the fox stood too close to the window, having the zombie reach through the boards and grabbing him by the furry patch on his chest and pulling him forward.

Tails struggled as the zombie pulled him against the window, trying to claw at him with the other arm as Tails did his best to fight back and keep his distance, avoiding the bloody claws by only inches.

"Let go of me!" The fox shouted as the creature abruptly loosened its grip on the kit, letting him fall down to the ground as he landed hard. Quickly getting back onto his feet, Tails wasted no time in killing off this creature.

"Die, you son of a bitch!" He shouted as he shot the zombie directly in the forehead, a single drop of blood falling to the ground as the zombie fell backwards.

"You make a great zombie killer Miles." Edward complimented him. "So cute and cuddly, but so deadly and fierce… just like Five!"

"Thanks…" The kit replied, trying to keep himself sane as he was beginning to feel more compulsive to strange tendencies.

"I'm already out of ammo… hell, maybe if we all had a knife like Richtofhen?" Sonic complained as he heard the clicking noise coming from his pistol. "Hey, what are those chalk outlines for, anyway?"

Sonic had raised a reasonable good question, thought the doctor. What were those chalk outlines? Maybe he would play a little mind game with them and say that you could get a weapon off of them for currency obtained from killing zombies, but even that seemed somewhat ludicrous to Doctor Edward Richtofhen to even begin to fully-

Just as the doctor's thoughts were thinking it, the event had happened. Sonic, being curious with the outlines had noticed it was drawn in the figure of a gun. He neared the weapon as it was sketched onto the side of the podium on the stage, touching the white chalk as he suddenly felt like he lost something, but in return, a rifle dropped into his hands.

"Whoa, a rifle!" Sonic exclaimed as he examined the fine wooden stock and metal frame. Suddenly, all the procedures and training he would need to fully use this weapon flooded into his mind. He could even name what it was, the M14.

"Hey, how'd you do that, Sonic?" Knuckles asked as he walked over from his window. "I want to get something like that…"

"Magically appearing weapons from chalk outlines on the wall… I don't believe that Maxis had anything to do with this, but there must be some logical explanation." Edward assessed to himself. "In the meantime, I will take full advantage of this unique feature given to us."

"A gun that gives me the excuse to keep a long distance, finally." Tails breathed a sigh of relief as he grabbed the M14 off the wall.

"Oh, now this looks like something I want…" Knuckles wondered off towards the entrance doors, noticing the chalk outline on the right side of the wall.

Knuckles quickly placed his hands onto the chalk, feeling the same sort of loss, then gain as a double barreled shotgun dropped into his hands.

"Double barrel shotgun, now I got the firepower to send these zombies back to hell!" Knuckles quoted as he took a good look at his new weapon to play with.

"So Knuckles gets the shotgun, while the rest of us get the rifle? Fair enough, I will be able to remove their arms from afar with this anyway." Richtofhen said as he grabbed the M14 and took careful aim and precision into account.

Knuckles gripped the shotgun tightly, shooting the grim figure of a zombie as it screamed and dropped like a rag doll. After the zombie died, a small drumming noise could be heard as the moans of the dead stopped for a fraction of a second before starting up again.

"Get ready for round two, zom-bitches!" Sonic shouted in an almost unrecognizable tone.

"Sonic, you are the most unoriginal and despising thing that I've ever met. I hate you." Richtofhen told him in his most bland and emotionless voice he could conjure up.

"Screw this room; I want to speed run this entire place!" Knuckles shouted as he slammed his fists against the steel framed door that blocked the way. The right side door was locked, completely unable to be forced open.

"Ah, what's happening?" Tails said as he clutched his head once more in agony. He collapsed on the floor, supported by his knees as he tried to block out the screams that kept echoing into his ears, a soft voice whispering to him.

A riddle that made him shiver with curiosity, yet a sample of fear.

"_I can fly like a bird, not in the sky,_

_Which can always swim, and is always dry._

_I say goodbye at night and morning hi,_

_I'm part of you, what am I?"_

The distressed kit could have sworn he'd seen his own shadow smile at him, licking its lips as it snarled with a horrifying tone. Yet, he decided to keep this fact to himself as Sonic grabbed his arm and helped him onto his feet.

"Little bro, what's wrong?"

"Let's get going." He said, walking straight now as he neared the same door that Knuckles had tried to open.

The group 935 symbol was embodied on the slightly grey door, the fist holding an atom seemed to signify how much this group stood for science, but instead began to signify an example of unimaginable horrors.

"_Miles… look for the light to find salvation."_

The fox placed his white gloved hands onto the steel frame, a sense of unnatural power seeming to flow through as a reaction as he coursed through him and into the abiotic metal.

With an irritating buzzing sound, the door slid open, revealing a grey and hollow hallway covered with the smell of death and coated with splats of red. Tails stood there as he looked down the hall, hearing a girl's laugh as he saw a figure at the end ran away to the left.

"Miles, you must have some magic fingers to do that…" Edward mumbled as he watched the yellow fox stand in trance. "I could use a back rub… just kidding, of course I'm kidding, but what if I wasn't?"

"Then you are a really sick fuck, Edward." Sonic said as he leered at the brown fox with a distasteful glare.

"I'm just kidding hedgehog, no need to be so personal." Edward sneered back as he passed by Tails and stepped into the gloom and empty hall. "After all, I would wait until he's older."

"_Shouldn't you be home? Why are you here, fighting the masses of undead, when you are still but a child?"_

As Edward motioned for them to follow, he walked down the hallway, taking note of the new paint coating the walls. Well, Tails hoped it was paint as the thick red seemingly terrified him.

"_Walking down these tattered halls of death and despair, doesn't that chill running down your spine tell you to give up? Why proceed forward if there is only death?"_

"Ja, I will make one stop in this room here." The brown fox opened his mouth and spoke as he stopped and fidgeted with the door that was labeled, "Storage".

The doors lock was incredibly easy to open, sliding into the wall as he entered the room, laughing like a maniac as he searched through the many crates and boxes that littered the entire room's layout.

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles followed the fox inside, looking at all the boxes as they were curious to what was kept in here. Many of the crates seemed to hold safety equipment and other necessary items, but some of which read, "115 unpetinium" with a huge "Do not touch" notice clearly written on them. But, even ignoring the message as Tails wanted to take a look at the mysterious element that had caused this whole mess, he found there was nothing within the crates and boxes.

"_You ravage the home of the dead, seeking to find a false hope in the darkness that the horde manifests itself upon. You seek a dying salvation, one that I was once the light of, but now even I turned to the darker side of fate, seeing no moral difference between those living and those who are dead."_

"Edward, what are you looking for?" Sonic asked, touching one of the wooden crates and raising his hand to see the collection of dust that accumulated.

"A box." He simply answered, rummaging through what he could have sworn to be the last place he placed it.

"Which one? Cause there are hundreds of them in here." Knuckles said as he sat on one of them, slinging the shotgun around his shoulder as he watched the only entrance into this room, waiting for the zombies to show up.

"_Every man has a desire… and I must ponder, what do you desire? In the darkest reaches of your soul, there must be something you crave for, will __**KILL**__ for…"_

Tails couldn't really focus on the others and what they were doing with this… thing speaking to him. He took a deep breath, trying to regain his train of thought as he thought of blocking this thing out of his head.

"There is only one I am interested in… and I've found it!" Edward shouted in glee as he found the dusty, battered box lying in the corner, sitting atop one of the crates as it had a slight gold aura around it. Edward didn't seem to notice it, as well as the two question marks that turned from a deep blue to a shining gold in a repeating pattern.

"Doc, does the box usually glow like that?" Sonic being the first one to notice the unnatural things about it pointed out.

"_Have you found your deluded 'Hope'? Or simply another obscure factor that will eat at your soul until you are ready to cry out in suffering, only for me to answer and bring you a swift and pitiful end, just like the doctor…"_

"Shut up and watch the wonder that will unravel from it… oh, I can barely wait!" Edward spoke madly as he rubbed his hands together, anxious to peer inside and look upon his marvelous invention once again.

Finally, the sadistic fox reached for the lid of the box, gripping onto the upper portion of the wooden structure and lifted up with all his might. The doctor was never considered to be the strongest person around, but even he began to note that it was strange when the box denied him its contents.

"The infernal box will not open for me! But why?" He cried out as he kept pulling with all his strength, getting nowhere with the devilish box that taunted him with what he kept inside.

"Move over doc, let a real man open it." Knuckles cockily said as he pushed the crazed Richtofhen to the side. He did the same, putting his hands of the lid and pulling up with all his might.

Strange, how Knuckles barely even started to pull when the lid flew open and the inside of the box was illuminated with a golden light. Even stranger as a small pistol rose up from the box, and swapped itself into a magnum, then a machinegun, then a light machinegun, and so on until it circled around too many weapons for the Echidna to count.

Sonic and the others watched how the weapon kept changing between others, playing a childlike tune as the box did this for about eight seconds before finally stopping on a weapon.

It was an AUG.

"Ah, sweet!" Knuckles shouted as he grabbed the floating gun and held it in his hands. The fine and smooth feel of the gun was exciting, as if he'd just gotten a new toy. "No wonder you wanted to find this box, it gives us guns!"

"It's not supposed too-" Edward twitched a little as he stared as the teasing box, lying there as it laughed at him in his mind. "How dare you! Where is my Wunderwaffe DG-2?"

"_You can hear me, whispering into your ear… tell him the light is lost, corroded by darkness and swallowed by a foolish man's pride. Tell him I'm coming to kill you all…"_

"Edward…" Tails began to choke up as he called the fox's name. He carefully sat down on a crate as he uttered out the words, "It's not here anymore."

"How do you know that, Miles?" The fox store back up at him, bloodshot eyes that questioned how the little kit could have known such a thing, if he never had been here before.

"A voice told me…" Tails finally decided to tell him, Sonic and Knuckles both hearing the same thing.

"Now we're getting two insane foxes… great." Knuckles mumbled as he elbowed Sonic, who didn't look too happy, instead a sign of worry spread across his face as he approached his younger brother.

"Tails, you're hearing voices? When did this start?" The blue hedgehog asked with concern.

"I should be asking those questions, Sonic. But, when did you start hearing these voices Miles?" Edward asked as he was even more interested in Tails now.

"I… I know I heard someone whispering my name back at Station Grid, but just a few minutes ago I heard it more clearly…" The yellow fox explained, with both Edward and Sonic paying full attention to him, Knuckles just playing around with the gun he got. "It kept trying to discourage me… trying to…"

"_Trying… what exactly? Tell them of your delusional mind, how your sanity will shatter and break when I bend and twist it apart. Perhaps, you would like to see your friends join the undead? Festering corpses that walk the earth, searching for the living in order to consume and renew the process…"_

"Did they tell you how to make a wonder weapon? Mine did." Edward stated as he gave out a small chuckle, grinning at the fox as he awkwardly sat there and told them.

"What it's telling me is…" Tails stuttered, finding it hard to repeat the words that the voice had spoken to him, barely remembering them too.

"_Without you, there's nothing for me to do. Can you feel the sunshine too?"_

"Stop talking to me!" Tails shouted out loud as tried his best to keep his composure. He looked at the faces of his friends around him. Sonic was still worried, Richtofhen had a sly grin on his face, and Knuckles had a frown that dropped to the bottom of his jaw.

"Very interesting story, so now that we know Miles is becoming a maniac like me, we should probably go find my Wunderwaffe and turn on the power." Edward said as he got up and clasped his hands together. "Everyone agree?"

"Tails, are you okay? Can you handle this any longer?" Sonic asked the yellow fox, grabbing his hand as he pulled the fox up and onto his legs.

"I'm thinking that once we do this, things will get better." Tails answered to his older brother, managing a small smile as he walked over to the wooden box and thought of getting another weapon like Knuckles did.

The box opened back up as Tails pulled the lid open, a small pistol floating into the air as it began playing a short jingle and the gun began to constantly swap between many others and then stopped.

The music stopped as it landed on a Galil.

"Automatic rifle… nice and accurate will kill zombies nicely." Tails noted as he seemed surprised at how the rifle felt so light in his arms.

"Oh, I got to try that creepy looking box!" Sonic quickly darted over to it, halting in front as he opened it up and peered at the content weapon it was certain to give him.

The gun rose up, music playing as it cycled through its assortment once more, tiny laughs being heard as the music slowed down and the gun went slower and slower, halting on something Sonic didn't expect whatsoever. Something none of them really expected, except maybe Richtofhen, but even he was quite surprised too.

A toy doll appeared in place of the gun, suspended in the air as it had a crooked smile across its face. Horrid stitches ran across its entire body, holding many of its stuffed limbs together as a thin metal rod protruded from the center of its forehead. Its ears were round and its body color was yellow, having two tails that were awkwardly proportioned when close to each other. It had a simple button nose, and on the end of the rod sticking from its head hanged a red crystal.

No doubt that this doll was made to try and resemble Tails, but the crude nature of which it looked and how it was made was concerning. Sonic was sure he saw this thing before, at the races back in the day.

But, unlike those days, much darker things were to be expected. The eyes which were usually blank were now a blood red, the smile growing bigger as the plush cackled madly, rising into the air as its feet dangled below it as lifelessly as the rest of its body.

"**Bye, Bye!"** it shouted as the doll rose through the ceiling, the box shutting its lid as the wooden contraption raised from its perch, floating into the air as it rose up towards the ceiling. It stayed there as it shook around and in mere seconds it vanished with a circle of electricity emitting from where it once was.

"_Conscious fulfilling, the darkness revealing all, __t__houghts and insecurities are shining like the sun. Eyes are deceiving, your mind will stop breathing, and all that you are made of will now rightly become mine."_

Shock could be a way to put it. Perhaps that was something none of them expected, lastly Sonic as he stared at the empty space the box once stood and saw a bloody teddy bear sitting there.

"Did it just… float away?" He asked, wondering if that just happened.

"Nice, it doesn't even let me open it, and you make it go away!" Edward yelled at the blue blur. "I wanted to learn all the secrets that the box had. But now it has gone…"

"Look at that." Tails said as he pointed to the wall behind where the box was. True enough, there was something there; some chalk writing that read something quite interesting.

_Wish too often and your wishing well will run._

As if the zombies didn't take enough time getting here, the creature's moans and screams began to filter the entire area. The sound of boards being ripped off where heard exceedingly well, as the hissing of an eager zombie was well within reach.

"Sounds like they've finally come for us…" Knuckles said, pumping the shotgun and locking and loading his Aug. "Let's give em' belly's full of lead!"

"If I cannot have fun with that doll anymore, then killing the minions is just as good." Richtofhen spoke with a certain pride in his tone. "I might just have to do an autopsy on you zombies… ha."

"_I know when you're sleeping; I know the things you're __**DREAMING!**__"_

"Alright, let's get to that mainframe while trying to stay alive, you up for this Tails?" Sonic said as he put the pistol to his side and gripped the M14.

"I'm ready." Tails eagerly replied, trying not to think of that doll now. Seeing it made him remember of the past, and it eventually would bring him through his memories… especially the ones he didn't want to think of. Also since the tails doll creeped him out, he didn't like to think of how Eggman could have made something so disturbing.

But when the young kit remembered about the good ol' eggman, he couldn't think of how more pleasant it was going against him then these things. Deeper into his thoughts, he wondered where Eggman was at this time? What was he doing?

So many people he wondered if they were safe or dead, hopefully the first one. The call of the hedgehog rang him back to his sense's, some of the zombies walking in through the open storage room door and some dropping in through an open hole in the ceilings.

Running around and killing zombies wasn't so bad as he'd thought. In such a short time, he was already beginning to like this. Yes, he thought to himself. Killing the dead was no problem, what would be immoral of killing something that should already be dead? In fact, it seemed more like the right thing to do.

Maybe he felt guilt from enjoying it?

* * *

><p>"<em>The uncertainty of death is a simple fear that haunts even the most intelligent beings. Dying is uncertain. Where will you go? What will happen? Is there just nothing to see, hear, taste, touch, and feel anymore? Is it like sleeping?<em>

_I am certain that the curse of undeath is a far worse fate then dying itself. Being doomed to walk an eternity, in a rotting body that no longer resembles your own as it rots away… do you fear that fate? Do I? What am I? A mere voice in your head that speaks and haunts you?_

_I will answer your questions, soon enough."_

* * *

><p>Zombies don't actually take that long to arrive, just for the convenience of the story will they do that. :D<p> 


	3. Madness Dawning

He stood in silence, the seething rage building up within him as he watched their slow yet gaining progress. Even he could not contain his bloodlust much longer, but he felt obliged to let them continue against the dead.

The young fox, so full of life and ripe for the picking… such a frail and plentiful body ready to be corrupted and twisted into a disarray of madness.

The boy was smart, but too weak to survive on his own. The others would die soon enough and he could have the fox all to himself, for whatever reason he wanted him for.

Funny, how he thought he wanted to kill him at first and take his life, but such things meant nothing to him anymore. Deluded were his thoughts, misconceived by his own moral miscomprehension. Everything deserved to die.

He laughed, standing up from the blood drenched chair he sat in. The stains across his chest and muzzle were more faded brown, the color of dried blood. Yet he had the same two tails dragging behind him, making no effort to lift them in any sort of emotion.

He could see them. He could feel them, yes, feel them. The same tainted blood ran through all their veins, and they didn't even know about it. The same blood…

He looked at the pulsating veins in his own arm, the thick and vibrant vessels glow a faint red, signaling the amount of unpetinium in his blood, the element that granted him the gift of immortality. He could not die, while everyone else could.

His blood, conjured from samples of the original held memories, much that made no sense to him, until he saw the kitsunes thoughts. She was dead, and he killed her. A perfect tool to torture his little mind, bending it until he snapped and became a bloodthirsty creature like him.

But the voices, speaking so soft and childlike now, made him feel different. The rage was suddenly subsiding, brought back by his own will to sustain it. He felt as if someone else was taking control of him, but he would never let himself be controlled again. He loathed it.

He could hear a name, one so simple and easy to say, Sam.

_"Samantha…"_

Then he heard Maxis.

* * *

><p>The beautiful sight of the creatures head popping filled the doctor's heart with joy. The bits and pieces of the bone and flesh that formed its already broken head flew across the walls, coating them in an even fresher sheet of blood.<p>

"I like the funny noise they make when they're heads explode. POP!" Edward exclaimed, laughing as he shot more of his M14 as he backed down the hallway.

Knuckles held the double barrel, shooting twice at two zombies that were foolish enough to crowd together and both be within range. The ribcages that held the dead organs of their decaying bodies ripped open as they screamed with agony.

Sonic quickly exited the storage room, stepping around to the corner of the door as he waved for Tails to follow through.

The fox sprinted, nearly getting stomped by a zombie that dropped from the broken ceiling above him. The fox quickly made it past the door, having the hedgehog shut it closely as a zombie followed closely behind.

The creature was foolish enough to try and grab the tip of the kits two majestic tails, reaching out at the moment the blue blur had used all his might to slam it shut. The door hit the other side as it locked, cutting through the dead flesh as if it were butter.

"Fucking gross." Sonic swore as he looked at the detached arm.

"There's not too many of them!" Knuckles shouted out as he shot once more into another zombie, watching the creature fall to the ground. "I can see only a few left!"

The Echidna was right. The moans were getting lighter as the zombies died off, signaling that the round was nearing its end.

"Knuckles, hand me a grenade!" Richtofhen shouted as the red Echidna simply threw over the brown bag he kept from Station Grid.

The brown fox reached into the bag, grabbing a well-rounded and recognizable grenade. He pulled the pin off, hearing a 'tick' as he threw the little ball of death over to the few two zombies that walked in front of the hallway entrance from the theater.

The zombies had little thought process as the grenade blew out pieces of shrapnel, ripping through their weak flesh and crippling them. The creatures pitifully tried to continue, grasping and pulling themselves forward as small trails of blood leaked from their entrails.

They were crawling towards their death. How cute.

"I like how dedicated they are! Resorting to crawling when they lose their legs, just wonderbar!" Edward exclaimed as he overexcitedly looked over the crawling zombie. "I shall name you Stumpy."

"Kind of a bad time to claim a new pet, Richtofhen." Sonic directed his voice to the brown fox, hardly getting his attention as he teased the crawler with his boot.

"Don't worry, I will keep him well fed and-"Edward could say before the mindless festering corpse known as Stumpy clawed and bit as his knee. "Get off me minion!"

The doctor kicked the brainless crawler, shooting it in the head as the skull broke apart and the pale flesh splattered across the floor, creating another mess to add to the already unsanitary condition of Geisteskranken.

"Stumpy was rude to the doctor. Stumpy paid the price."

"You do that to all your pets doc?" Sonic couldn't resist being a wise crack.

"Only the ones that try to kill me… or pee on the carpet." Richtofhen replied, touching the squishy pieces of brain that he crawler had spilled onto the floor.

As they talked, Knuckles averted his eyes towards the remaining crawler, watching it drag its wretched body as it hissed at him. He began to push two new rounds of ammunition into the zombie, aiming the sights at the crawler before Richtofhen interfered.

"I don't think so, my Echidna friend. Should we kill it, we end the round, and we still have many things to do."

"Round? What the hell are you talking about, quack?" Knuckles argued with the doctor.

"Think of it as a game, once we kill all the zombies in a round, the next one begins. While we still have this crawler, we can stall the next round from beginning right away!" Richtofhen explained in a childlike tone. "Isn't it fun?"

"Yes it is." Tails agreed, smiling as he too touched the little pieces of brain, astonishing Sonic and Knuckles as they never would have thought him to do such a thing. He was more of a squeamish type.

"Tails, what are you saying?" Sonic concerned himself once again over the young fox.

"What? All I'm saying that it is fun at least killing these things. Besides, better we kill them than be killed, no?" The yellow fox answered with such enthusiasm in his voice.

"Ha-ha, Miles is descending into madness! I can tell, oh how much fun we are going to have now…" Richtofhen laughed and giggled as he watched the fox struggle between his sudden desire to slaughter and conflicts with his own emotions.

"I'm not going mad… am I?" Tails seemingly directed his question to no one in particular, getting blank stares and confused expressions from the others.

"Listen Tails, you're acting kind of… funny." Sonic stated, not looking too happen with how his brother was losing his mind. "Just… don't think about… you know, and you'll be fine."

The young fox knew full well who he was talking about, and he tried not to remember her name at a time like this. But, it was actually easy to forget about her, these things were incredibly pleasuring to kill, very pleasurable…

Then Tails started to realize how twisted he was getting when he heard himself think that. How could he even let himself forget Cos- no, don't mention her.

"_I see… pain, suffering, remorse, and love… how pitiful. Yet, it is satisfyingly tragic, as your little charade of 'love' had died like every living thing is destined too. You let your emotions flow too easily Miles, they show your weaknesses."_

"Fuck… you." Tails said as quietly as possibly, this time making sure his friends didn't hear him. The voice he could tell heard him, and laughed cockily in response. It was as if it was trying to piss him off, but what could he do about it? It wasn't like it was really there…

"Enough fooling around, let us turn on the power!" Richtofhen finally said aloud as they stood there in awkward silence.

The brown fox walked down the bloody hall until he reached the end and turned left, finding himself staring in the face of the group 935 symbol again as it was craved into the metallic frame of another security door.

"Don't worry; I will do what Miles did. Ahem, Abracadabra!" The crazed fox shouted as he stretched his fingers out and touched whilst he wiggled them in a silly fashion.

The door reacted, buzzing and retreating into the wall as it opened the way. The clear view of the office section was visible as there were two primary buildings; Doctor Maxis's office and Administration. None of which were really important right now, with the dead roaming and such.

"Hey Doc, if they had some pretty neat and high tech stuff here, how did the zombies take over?" Sonic raised a reasonable question that Edward couldn't one-hundred percent answer with specific details. So, he decided to joke with the blue blur.

"Oh I don't know, maybe the gardener forgot to water the plants." Edward answered with a straight face, Sonic not understanding what he meant. "He should be fired… except that he's dead. Wait, maybe we can reanimate him and then fire him! No wonder they call me a genius, or lunatic, you know what I choose."

"Clever." Tails complimented the doctor.

The grey bricks and other bits and pieces of the buildings were as bland as you could get. Although, why would they care about style anyway? Practical was the way to go.

There was immediately another door to the top right of the section leading into the communications yard, and after so into the mainframe. This door didn't have the group 935 symbol like the others, instead having the letter '5' written in blood.

Even creepier, there was blood writing underneath it as well. All four of them went to read it as the text itself was crude and unmistakably a threat and a hint of what was to come.

"**Crescent shadows descend on thee, crushing the light that creates thyself.**

**Without morning sun, the darkness that recurs is misplaced by itself, foolishly and blindly running towards their own demise.**

**But with keen and intellect behind their mustering strength, the brute and blunt nature of their crusade becomes one of everlasting torment. The plague that ravishes this world known as 'life' is weak, pathetic, unworthy of their so called 'gift'.**

**I will render and steal hence this 'gift' from you. Your mind will fade into the darkness, least when you go searching for your own demise, the blackness and cold reality of death is all that you will find. **

**I have returned."**

"Who is writing this stuff? You Richtofhen?" Knuckles asked, puzzled by all the strange writing and stuff.

"No, there is a difference between an insane person and… never mind, it wasn't me." Edward answered while thinking over his mistaken words.

"I don't know... this just makes the place more eerie." Sonic said as he looked around, hearing only the sound of the crawler as it slowly moved through the hallway.

Tails knew who wrote this, but he didn't want to speak it. The voices in his head spoke like this; they taunted him like this…

"_Daddy…"_

"What the hell?" Sonic shouted as he heard the sob of a little girl ring out. "Who said that?"

"Who cares hedgehog, we need to get to the mainframe! Now use your magic points or whatnot to open this door!" Edward commanded of the speed demon as he merely sighed and touched the door.

It opened up like the rest, showing a new section with grass and a nice cobblestone path towards both the mainframe and the communications tower to the left. Of course, there would be no reason to go into the tower, since communication was the last thing Richtofhen wanted right now.

"_Daddy… daddy, where are you?"_

"Okay, I'm not the only hearing that!" Sonic shouted out as he drew everyone's attention towards the voice. "C'mon Tails, you hear it too? And you Knuckles?"

"I couldn't tell if it was Richtofhen or not." The Echidna answered as he elbowed Tails, hinting that he had made a joke.

"I could hear it." Tails answered to Sonic, suddenly being silent as he was fighting a battle with himself. "It sounded like it was… unnatural."

"Ja ja, like none of this is unnatural, how superstitious." Edward mocked them. "I was hoping you all would be more easy to use after injecting- damnit, I have to stop blurting out!"

"_Daddy… I forgive you…"_

"Little girl who is talking from wherever you are, please shut up!" Richtofhen shouted to the sky, making angry grunts and mumbles as he walked into the mainframe, cursing the little distractions that delayed his timeline ever so much.

"No explanation this time guys, looks like we're going to have to wait until there's some novel or story detailing how we die here and all the things that happened afterwards…" Knuckles grimily muttered as he followed the lunatic doctor into the appropriately named mainframe.

Sonic looked at Tails, able to see the torture and sorrow within the kits eyes, the pain and misery he tried so hard to keep up inside…

It was killing Sonic to see him hurt this much. But it was killing Tails even more.

"Listen buddy, are you sure you're okay?" He did his best to try and force his younger brother to talk.

"I'm fine, how are you?" The cunning kit had already tried to reverse the cards.

"C'mon Tails, let's not do this. I tried to talk about this with you four years ago and many occasions afterwards, you gotta let it out sooner or later." The hedgehog was sounding more persuasive then he did back then. "You can't bottle it all up inside, you have to let go."

"Easy for you to say, you never had a love… at least one you're not afraid to admit it about." The kit sneered his words and lashed at him, though Sonic could tell he didn't mean them.

"Miles…" Sonic began to use his real name, which made the fox widen his eyes as he knew Sonic was really being serious. He would almost never use Tails real name, unlike others who didn't know him would use it frequently, Sonic was known to never call him that.

"No, I don't need to…" The kit had tried to plug his ears, but the blue hedgehog grabbed his hands and stared him straight in the face.

"Listen Miles, I know that it hurts to lose to someone you love and you're right that I wouldn't know what it feels like…" The hedgehog admitted. "But-"

"I don't need you to tell me this, Sonic!" The fox yelled. He was incredible stressed, sweating as the sudden rage quickly subsided and he felt himself growing fainter again as he covered his face with his hands. "I don't need you…"

"Tails, let me-"

"_How drool, that this sudden escapade of emotions trifles with your very intent upon desecrating the will of the damned, walking these halls. You think I, would give mercy towards those, who are weak and shadowing their own fears of subjection and death by my bloodied hands? I long to seethe myself in your warm, delicious, and beautiful __**BLOOD!**__"_

The voice talked to both of them, its demonic voice echoing as it subsided within seconds.

"Who the hell is that?" Sonic questioned out loud, forgetting his discussion with Tails, as had the fox.

"It's him; the one that's been talking to me!" The yellow fox shouted as he temporarily saw a reflection of himself standing in front of him, reaching out with long claw-like hands that could easily pierce flesh.

"_I cannot wait, until my very hands claw and dig into the flesh of your fur covered body! __**I CANNOT SUSTAIN MYSELF FROM YOUR DELICASY!"**_

"Oh boy, I think the crawler died…" Sonic and Tails heard Edwards voice softly from a distance as they began to hear the zombies again. It seemed round four was beginning.

Edward waited in the mainframe, looking towards the MDT-R teleporter in all its glory.

"This is the teleporter that has been our greatest success! And the reasoning behind the zombie's creation…" Edward muttered to Knuckles, who nodded as he understood.

"Gee, this thing caused all the trouble? How do we use it against them?" Knuckles asked, frequently looking around as he could hear boards being ripped off.

"Once the power is on, we must re-link all three teleporters to this one. Once that is done, we will gain access to the failsafe mechanism of the MDT-R. After that, the results will speak for themselves…" The brown fox explained with due haste.

"We're coming!" Sonic shouted as Tails grimily followed behind, appearing behind the chain-link fence as they found the door opening on the right and walked into the center of the mainframe with Richtofhen and Knuckles.

The Mainframe was quite limited in its space, its basic shape being a huge square. It had a thin fence that separated the outer path for ominous observers who were not taking part in whatever was happening to safely pass through.

Two openings were on the bottom left and right side, with the main project lying in the middle. There was a metal platform rising up as the metal hull of the teleporter sat on it. The wires and prongs sticking out had made the machine look menacing, downright fearful.

Little sparks of electricity coursed and bounced off every visible piece. Edward couldn't help but feel as if someone died here… someone he knew closely, but he quickly shrugged it off as he returned to his cynical self.

"You two weren't… you know…" The doctor inquired as he leered with a suggestive posture.

"Gross, doc! Stop thinking like that!" Sonic answered as he sneered with disgust in his voice.

"Very well, it's getting dull anyway." He answered back, pretending to yawn. He took a big breath of air, exhaling as he exclaimed happily. "The smell of victory… it draws so near. Can you smell it?"

"No, so just get the power on Edward." Tails bitterly replied, turning his backside towards the doctor as he saw a zombie climbing over the fence.

The zombies had made their way once again, many of them starting to run as they jumped and gripped tightly onto the chain-links holding the fence together and climbing over it. Some of them decided to walk around and get in.

"We'll hold them off while you get the power on so all this stuff turns on." Knuckles told the doctor as he practically skipped to a small door to the right side and opened it up.

The brown fox could hear the sound of power jittering all around, as well as the gunshots that had started to sound. He saw blue sparks jump across from many generators surrounded by gates as he neared the back of the power room.

The power switch lay there, attached to a panel with flickering lights and other suspicious buttons. The handle itself was riddled with rust, wondering how old it was as the doctor grabbed onto it and pulled the bright red switch down.

"_Power restored, all electronical systems are back online."_

"Yes, I have restored the power! THE POWER IS ALL MINE- Oh wait, we're not that far yet." Richtofhen shouted out in triumph to himself, hearing all the electricity sound and all the utilities of the facility powering on again.

Edward walked back to the mainframe, stepping out of the power room as the sight of a many corpses filtered across the bloody ground.

"Good job doctor, now all we need to do is get those teleporters linked, right?" Sonic asked as the zombies were already dawdling in numbers, five or more limping their way over the corpses that were piling up.

"Ja, the power is on so we can do it now. But, I suggest we make haste, else he will be coming…" Edward replied as he seemed to be excited.

Then one of the zombies was shot by Tails, suddenly bursting into a sprint as it ran straight for the doctor. It clawed at him twice, sending deep cuts into his arms as he fell onto the ground.

The doctor yelled as the ugly creature stood over him, turning towards the blue hedgehog as it hissed violently.

"F you, you stupid motherfucker!" Sonic shouted as he punched the wrinkly undead across the face, making it stumble backwards as put his rifle against its head and popped it like a melon.

"Ah, now help me! I've fallen and I can't get up!" Edward shouted as he lay on the ground, moaning as his back was aching incredibly.

The hedgehog stepped away from the corpse of the zombie, walking back over to the brown fox as he grunted on the ground. He extended his arm and grabbed onto the foxes hand, pulling him lightly as he slowly drifted up from the ground.

"Ah, let go!" Edward suddenly shouted as the hedgehog let go of his hand, making him slam back down onto the ground. "Oh… that didn't feel good."

"Jesus, what do you want me to do?" Sonic asked as he shrugged his arms. "Is your back hurting old man?"

"I didn't know you were a medical professional Sonic." Knuckles said with a laugh.

"Shut up and help me. There's some medicine in my pocket, just grab it and…"

"Got it." Sonic muttered as he kneeled down and reached into the doctors pockets, pulling out a thin like capsule of some sort. "What the hell do I do with this?"

"You pull the cap off and then…" Edward began to drag off, snickering while wincing at his back pain.

"Oh god, Sonic you don't want to use that." Tails had implied as he himself started to snicker.

"Why? What the hell do I do? I take the cap off, and then-"

"It's a suppository." Edward managed to squeak out. "You have to insert it into my-"

"Screw that, Knuckles you do it!" Sonic shouted as he threw the medicine at the unwary Echidna, catching it as he was just clueing in.

"Wait, what?" He asked, puzzled by all this.

"You have to stick that thing up Edwards… ass." Tails slowly informed the Echidna, making his face riddle with disgust as he held the capsule shaped medicine in his right hand.

"Oh, screw my luck…" He said, knowing that there was no way he was avoiding this one. He knelt down to the doctor, who smirked as he watched the red echidna steadily take the medicine and- well, you don't need to know the details.

"Ah, that feels much better." Richtofhen said as he quickly stood up, wiping some dust off his coat and stretching his arms. "Would have been awkward to do it myself."

"Yeah, much better that I did it." Knuckles said sarcastically as he wiped his hands on the walls.

"Alright, so now I kill this guy." Tails had spoken as he aimed his Galil and shot the remaining zombie in the head, making a satisfying crunching sound as it exploded into tiny pieces.

All as well, the drumming had started up as the round finished. Undoubtly, it was only round five and they'd already gotten the power back on. They're accomplishment is something to be proud of, considering the circumstances.

"Well, the first teleporter to link is back in the theater room, where we started." Edward explained as he tapped his fingers against each other. "I will need you three to go back there and initiate the recalibration mechanism."

"Wait, how do we do that? And where is the teleporter there?" Tails asked before leaving.

"Just press the big red button on the inside of the machine, and as for knowing what it is…" The brown fox slowly dragged on as he waited to answer. "Let's just say, you'll know it when you see it."

"Yeah, behind that big red curtain that was there, right?" Sonic inquired. "It looked like something huge was behind that, probably the teleporter."

"Correct, little rat. Now go, and activate the machine!" Edward laughed like a madman as he spoke. "Oh, and stay inside the machine when you start it up, you'll be in for a surprise…"

"Hope its not like the surprise that just happened..." Knuckles mumbled as he walked past the insane fox, hearing him as the three began there walk back to the theater, leaving the doctor by himself as he waited for their return.

"Oh yes, it will be a surprise... and it will lead me one step closer to my goal."

* * *

><p>"<em>I need your hand. Lead me out with your light, I have breathed in, the disgusting air of darkness, but I never lose out."<em>


	4. Shadows Reflection

"_How interesting, maybe if I add… odd, that wasn't supposed to happen, perhaps I will include this factor in my next experiment."_

_(Zombie moans)_

"_Quiet! I need silence for my work… unless you would kindly scream in pain, then you can talk or groan, or whatever you mindless undead do."_

"…_ED!"_

"_Oh my, how extraordinary that it spoke! Maybe I should tell Maxis about this… hey, what is that burning smell? Smells like the energy unit I used for the Inferno g- what are you doing with that, zombie?"_

"_BURN!"_

"_You ignorant creature! You set yourself aflame, but you do not die? Ah, you're too much of a hazard anyway, be gone with you!"_

_(Teleporting sound is heard as the moaning stops)_

"_So sad, the zombie was quite the specimen. Oh well, I have many other subjects to attend to. Now then, where is patient number 5? It's time for his… appointment with the doctor."_

* * *

><p>Running all the way back to the beginning wasn't so hard. Only a few zombies had gotten in their way, nothing that the Sonic gang couldn't handle without some sweat and a couple bullets.<p>

"Dying a second time must be very humiliating!" Knuckles shouted to one of the deceased creatures as it screamed and ran at him. The Echidna shot its head off with his shotgun, spraying the brains onto the grass.

The yellow kitsune side stepped past a zombie before jumping and spraying bullets down through its skull. He turned around once more to his right as he shot two zombies trying to flank him, quickly reloading the Galil as he stepped forward to meet more of them.

Sonic had his speed to count on, jumping on some of the undead's heads as he quickly aimed down and shot directly down the spine before going to the next. The zombies he'd shot struggled as they collapsed onto the ground, gripping their throats as they quickly died once more.

"They should make a new definition of ugly, because you guys raise the standards!" Sonic shouted as quickly shot two rounds of his M14 into a zombies head before it exploded.

"I'm only doing you guys a favour!" Tails yelled as he kicked a crawling zombie over and stuck his rifle right against its head before firing. He quickly backed off as two hands emerged from the soil in front of him, another zombie rising to join the fight.

"Looks like all the heats coming here, let's get to that teleporter!" Sonic shouted as he began to notice the alarming amount of zombies that were taking part in their battle.

The zombies were getting to a more potent level of aggression. Many of them were starting to run and swipe quickly at our hero's, many just missing the mobians by mere inches.

The yellow fox jumped back as he avoided the tangy claws of the undead, surprised as a zombie lunged towards him and merely wrapped its decaying hands around the kits neck.

Tails stared into its eyes as it continued to choke him, struggling as he kicked at it to let him go. He grabbed onto one of its arms and let a powerful punch connect with the zombies face as it yelled and let him go.

"TAILS!" The monster shouted as it repeated the attack, running forward as it desperately flailed its arms around to attack.

Tails was startled by the fact the creature spoke, a harsh and wretched voice that was filled with hisses and screams. He quickly put the Galil away as he grabbed onto the M14 and shot off some bullets into the creature's chest.

Moaning, the creature grasped onto its stomach as six bullets passed through it, causing much damage as its weak limbs decided to fly off and leave it with only one arm.

"SAM!" It shouted as the kit shot the last two bullets, penetrating its skin and making the zombie scream as it fell to the ground. As if on cue, a floating green bomb shaped icon appeared in the air, slowly circling around as the sound of humming came with its presence.

"Another green thing, yet it doesn't look like a box of ammo…" Sonic said as he quickly pulled a headshot on a zombie. "Tails, grab it!"

The fox wasted no time with his brother's approval, rushing towards the floating bomb as he passed through it and his vision was blinded by white.

All of their vision was filled with a white light. The green bob disappeared, the sound of some sort of shockwave spreading out as a demonic voice said calmly.

"_Ka-boom."_

The white dispersed as their vision became clear again, the zombies still walking towards them.

But after a few seconds, the creature suddenly began to be cloaked in flames! They're heads with exploding with the rest of their useless body being set aflame.

"That green thing is killing them all…" Tails muttered as he watched the zombie's burn to a crisp, the image burning into his mind as a sweet memory.

"Good thing it doesn't do that to us." Sonic said aloud as he grabbed his younger brother by the shoulder and led him around. "Let's get that teleporter started."

**Meanwhile with the good doctor.**

"I take you soul!" Edward yelled at the pitiful zombie as it screeched and fell onto the ground. His knife penetrated deeply into its flesh, cutting the veins of its neck and letting the warm blood flow freely onto his fur, soaking it in a sensation of both joy and sorrow.

He pulled the knife out as he looked down at the sad little creature. Its eyes had burnt out, like the rest when they died. The sad image of an undead hedgehog lay before him, one he could recognise as one of the engineers here.

"I always knew he was going to die, I can just tell these things." He mumbled out loud to himself, bringing a cloth out of his pocket as he wiped the fresh blood off of his knife. "So shiny that I can see my reflection… and I do look sexy, don't you think?"

Of course he was talking to the voices in his head, whispering him things he barely understood, but his psychotic mind pretty much made its own sense out of it.

The brown fox looked around him, taking a huge breath as he remembered when all the living people were working so much to get the teleporter working, who were now dead or undead, whichever didn't matter too much.

Then he noticed the small terminal where the outside lever to start the teleporter was. The lever had been ripped off and he just noticed a small trail of blood leading into the teleporter hub, where he noticed a familiar piece of clothing lying on the ground right outside of the MDT-R.

A torn piece of fabric from a uniform of some sort, a piece of the gun eagle on it as there was also an "L" still printed onto it.

"So, it would seem that Maxis has… unfortunate, now I will never get my revenge!" Edward shouted to himself, throwing the piece of clothing to the ground as he stood firm and looked defiantly at the teleporter.

Edward couldn't understand how he hated Maxis, yet respected and admired him at the same time. His betrayal was a major setback, but perhaps it was that which had saved him from the initial zombie outbreak? Also, how Maxis did it even though Edward had protested and even begged him not to. He was determined to do whatever he deemed necessary.

That was the best quality Richtofhen liked about his old hedgehog friend, even though he had other… likeable features.

But then he shook his head, trying to focus on what was needing to be done. Soon those furry lackeys of his would start the mainframe reconnection countdown and Edward would need to connect it so that the teleporter will work.

"At least there is still the button on the inside…" Edward mumbled as he walked into the MDT-R's hull and tinkered with its contents, mostly the red button situated on the top of MDT's entrance.

**Back to our three hero's**

The nuke had killed mostly all of the zombies, leaving only few left as they staggered slowly behind the hedgehog, Echidna, and fox as they quickly darted through the hallway and back into the theater room where they started.

Once they entered, they saw that the stage had expanded with the curtain gone. Two huge metal frames stood there with many spare metals on them, with two new windows being visible for the zombies to break through.

"Look, there's the teleporter!" Tails shouted as he pointed his finger out towards the hulking metal machine situated at the very back center of the stage. The group 935 logo was embedded in large print on it, the same three metal prongs sticking out on the top as multiple wires ran out form the sides and underneath.

The fox was in awe. He'd never seen such a strange, yet unique design for a teleporter, or even knew too much about this element 115 they used for it. Though Tails made it a worthwhile note to never use element 115 in any of his experiments of gadgets since the whole zombie problem was because of it.

"C'mon, let's turn it on so Richtofhen can connect it." Sonic said as he jumped onto the stage, Knuckles jumping up to as Tails preferred to walk up the little stairs.

Tails looked around much more, making observations of all the stuff he saw. Like the wooden podium that had the M14 on it had an automatic turret now attached to the top and was just waiting to be turned on.

He looked around the metal frames at all the various parts and objects as Sonic and Knuckles walked straight for the teleporter. As the yellow fox was looking around, he stumbled upon a strange looking rock. It was coloured red and it had little sparks of electricity jumping off it.

"A rock… but it's unlike any rock I've ever seen." He muttered to himself. "Could this be element 115?"

Maybe it was a mistake to touch the rock, but the fox did it anyway, feeling a strange sensation overrun him as he gripped onto the quite soft texture of the element.

It made him feel happy, it made him feel excited and overjoyed. He could hear whispering, a happy whispering. It was the voice of Cosmo, speaking to him.

"_Tails… I love you."_

Maybe Tails was too overjoyed to understand it was only telling him the last thing she said before she died. She wasn't talking to him from the dead, but the element told him what he wanted to hear. He wanted to believe she was actually talking to him.

"Hey Tails, snap out of it." Sonic said as he shook the entranced fox carefully, spooking him as he suddenly dropped the rock and it fell under the cover of a protruding piece of metal.

"No, don't leave!" He shouted as the blue hedgehog kept grabbed his arm before he could kneel down and pick it back up.

Tails looked back up at Sonic, somewhat mad but also realizing the foolishness behind what he was doing. He only slumped his head down as he walked past Sonic towards the teleporter, frowning as the blue blur wasn't too happy himself.

"Hey look, it's the box!" Knuckles alerted the others as he saw it from within the teleporter. The wooden box was lying against the metal frame on the back side, the question marks on it glowed a vibrant gold as the blue hedgehog was the only one to approach it as Tails walked into the teleporter.

"Finally, I get to use it." Sonic uttered as he placed his hands on the lid and lifted it up, waiting anxiously for something good to pop out and be his.

Naturally, the jingle went normally as it slowed down near the end as the gun swapped randomly until stopping on its selection.

And Sonic had gotten the Tails doll again.

"You've got to be fucking kidding, again?" Sonic shouted as he shut his eyes, waiting for that damn doll to float away with the box again.

But after five seconds the hedgehog opened his eyes again as he saw the doll slowly drifting back into the box, almost getting back in as Sonic grabbed in by the tails and pulled it out.

The doll was incredibly stiff unlike how Sonic thought it would be. Its legs were locked in a sitting position as the red crystal hung happily to the side; it's once red eyes glowing a bright blue as it etched a huge smile across its face.

"What… I just got… a doll? The Tails doll? What kind of weapon is this?" Sonic asked as he could swear the box was being a bitch to him.

"It actually looks kind of adorable like that." Tails noted form the teleporter as he and Knuckles waited for him to finish.

"Well, whatever. Here Tails, you hold onto it." Sonic mumbled as he tossed the toy doll over to the yellow kit as he caught it right before hitting the ground. Sonic opened up the box again in the hopes of actually getting a gun.

The box did its jungle, etc, as the gun stopped on a very strange looking weapon.

The gun was coloured red with many white strips across its nozzle. It had a little gauge on the left side with an even smaller needle, and a strange knob on the right side. It was as small as a standard pistol, with three little arches on the back of the gun and the strangest iron sights anyone had ever seen as it glowed red.

Sonic grabbed it as he felt a little weight added to himself. He quickly searched in his fur to find some little batteries that read 'Atomic cold cell batteries'.

"What is this? Some child's toy?" Sonic questioned the strange nature of the weapon in his hands.

Truthfully, the gun looked extremely out of date. Sonic had tried to test it out by aiming at the metal frames and pressing the trigger he found in the normal spot of guns, but it did not fire.

"Let me see it." Tails said as he walked over to Sonic, who handed him the odd gun.

The fox examined it, pacing around as he looked it over and not noticing where he was going had crashed into the metal frame and knocked over a radio sitting on one of the shelves.

The metal box hit the ground as static sounded out and a bunch of moans were heard emitting from it. Tails stopped looking at the gun as he listened to what the radio recording had to say, as well did Sonic and Knuckles who waited in the teleporter.

_(Loud screaming and shouts)_

"_They're everywhere!_

_(Struggling as the man is heard fighting off a zombie)_

"_Don't give up! We have to hold them off the stage!"_

"_What'll we do?"_

"_Start up the teleporter! It's our only hope of escape!"_

_(More fighting and hissing is heard as the teleporter hums to life)_

"_Quick! Before they-"_

"_Fuck, get him off me!"_

"_What the fuck? Oh shit, it's him!"_

"_Shoot that motherfucking two tailed fox!"_

"_**Kill…"**_

_(Gunshots are heard as a loud thump is heard along with another shot ringing out)_

"_You just killed him!"_

"_Better him than u-"_

_(Loud screech is heard as the sound of flesh being ripped apart is heard)_

"_He's not dead, he was faking it!"_

"_**NO REST FOR THE DAMNED!"**_

_(Screams as message cuts out and ends) _

Tails was pretty speechless from hearing the recording. Sonic watched him, understanding the fact that the one voice in it sounded like him.

Tails turned away and walked back into the teleporter along with Sonic and Knuckles. He held the two tailed doll in his right hand as he handed the gun back to Sonic, who mumbled whether he'd actually got something or not.

As the two tailed kit pressed the red button on right above the teleporters entrance, a loud buzzing was heard, followed by a digitized voice.

"_You have thirty-five seconds to reconnect to mainframe."_

"Alright, now we just got to wait for Edward to connect it and we're finished with one teleporter." Tails said aloud as he felt relieved to got one part of their objective finished.

"What will it do when he connects it?" Sonic asked as Knuckles smacked the back of head.

"That's a stupid ass question, it teleports us!" Knuckles teased the blue hedgehog. "Not like it being called a teleporter could in any way suggest what it does…"

"Calm down guys, we just gotta wait for Edward to connect it." Tails said with a hopeful smile etched onto his face.

**Back with Edward**

"_You have twenty-five seconds to reconnect teleporter to mainframe."_

"What was that sound? Oh, it's just the teleporter recalibration process… yawn." Edward said as he'd probably done this many times before. "I just have to press the big red button on this panel and inside the MDT-R…"

The brown fox had a horrible thought to be as annoying to his 'new' subjects. Yes, it just came to him.

"I will wait till the countdown reaches one, and then connect it! Ahahahaha, it will only be annoying. How could it harm them in any way possible?"

**Back to the theater**

"_Twenty seconds."_

"Does it really take him this long?" Knuckles asked, coughing it out as he stood against the back of the machine.

"I don't know, but you- wait, what's that noise?" Sonic said as he could hear a slight whispering before the familiar voice screamed out in a demonic tone.

"**FETCH ME THEIR SOULS!"**

The collection of electricity gathered up until it released one of the hellhounds, others following behind as their appearances were being made. They snarled as they saw the three mobians standing within the teleporter hull, growling as they lit themselves aflame and charged towards them with their teeth bared.

"Oh shit, hellhounds!" Sonic shouted as the dogs ran towards them. He held his M14 firmly as he shot his entire clip out, only killing one as two replaced its presence.

Tails and Knuckles both helped, shooting the double barrel at two of the dogs before he was forced to reload as Tails switched back to his Galil and aimed carefully.

"Damnit, what the hell is Edward doing?" Tails shouted out as he kept shooting at the hellhounds, panicking as he ran out and find he had no more ammo for his Galil, switching to the M14 as he noted that he only had three more clips for it.

"_Fifteen seconds."_

"How do I use this weird ass gun?" Sonic questioned as his M14 was now useless without ammo. "It's got to work or do something… come on!"

The hedgehog fidgeted with every visible point on his strange weapon, finally turning the round dial on the right side as it clicked and a strange humming emitted from the gun. Hearing this, he pointed the almost toy-like weapon in the direction of a hellhound and fired.

The gun fired a green orb like substance out from its barrel, accurately making its mark as it slammed against the hellhound in front of Sonic, splashing out a green cloud of vapor as the dog exploded into a mess of blood.

"Shit Sonic, that gun kicks ass!" Knuckles said as he pumped the last of double barrel shotgun ammo into the stomach of a decaying dog. "Maybe you should let me borrow it, and you can have my shotgun…"

"Look out!" Tails shouted as three hellhounds appeared in front of them, charging forward as one jumped over them and landed behind them in the teleporter.

The creature growled as he bit into the leg of the red echidna, grunting in pain as he grabbed his Aug and unloaded the whole round into its head.

"_Ten, nine, eight…"_

"How many dogs are coming?" Sonic shouted as he helped Knuckles stay on his legs, shooting the M14 as another dog blew into bits.

"I don't know!" Tails shouted as the hellhounds surrounded them with no chance of escape.

"_Seven, six, five…"_

"This can't be the end, we've come so far!" Knuckles shouted, punching one of the dogs in the face as he fell down in the teleporter. He groaned as the pain in his leg began to intensify, grabbing and constricting as if to stop the pain altogether.

"Pull it together, Knucklehead! We're not done yet!" Sonic assured him; spin dashing as he was knocked back by the sheer brutal assault of the hounds.

"_Four, three, two…"_

"No ammo…" Tails wheezed out with his empty breath, letting the rifle hang to his side as one hellhound store directly into his eyes as it jumped, its fangs nearly biting into the yellow foxes chest…

…Until the teleporter started up.

"_One."_

A thin strip of electricity jumped down from the top interior hull of the MDT, crashing against the absorbent padding below and the creatures within.

The streaks of blue collided with the hellhound that jumped towards Tails, shocking the creature as its limp body was toasted and thrown back into the mass of undead dogs. The electricity touched the soft and smooth texture of the mobians fur, absorbing and coursing through their bodies as a painful sensation of burning could be felt all other their bodies.

It happened for a few seconds, the fox could hear the sound of lightning, but couldn't make any motion to flinch of cower. In a few moments, he swore everything went white for a fraction of a second, until his vision was filled with a whirlpool of blue lines and strange streaks of white running around.

Voices that talked so loud were present, images of people and the zombies constantly appearing as the voices continued speaking. Tails could clearly make out one that spoke, saying: "Save me…"

The yellow fox couldn't see his teammates, wherever he looked there were images of people who were dead or he simply didn't know. Then he saw a giant glowing light at the end of the tunnel, pulsating as he neared it, humming gently as he reached out his gloved hands and drew closer to it.

Before he knew it, the two tailed fox was standing up within the metal interior of the MDT-R. His legs felt wobbly and his stomach roared violently, as if he was going to throw up. He looked around with his sky blue eyes, noticing Sonic and Knuckles standing inside the machine too, well, Knuckles was on his knees as he vomited out some nasty stuff.

But in the edge of Tails eyes, he could see something strange. There was a line of red with coloured lettering that showed different numbers. One was Blue, one was Red, one was Yellow, and one was Green.

He could also now see a little bar in the bottom of his eyes that showed the name of the current weapon he was holding and a flickering 0 next it flashing red. He could only assume that this was supposed to represent his ammo, but the numbers?

Tails looked over to Knuckles, who just got onto his feet as Tails paid attention to the area where he'd been bitten. There was no bite mark; in fact, he looked like he'd never even been scraped during their whole journey so far.

But Tails felt different himself, looking behind him as he saw his two tails, moving vibrantly and full of life. His muscles were aching, yet they felt like they'd grown stronger, as if he was enhanced by…

But then they diverted their eyes towards the door leading out of the machine, seeing the figure of Edward as he stood there, smiling at them as they were experiencing the side effects of first teleportation.

"How was the trip? Did you enjoy the ride?" He asked in a hysterical tone.

"Edward, you mother-" Sonic was about to mouth him off as he stepped up to him, but instead opened his mouth as vomit flew out and directly onto the doctors clothes. He wiped some of the digestive juices off his face as he slightly felt himself getting better.

"Oh… nice." Edward spoke emotionlessly, taking off the coat he'd been wearing as he tried not to get any of the vomit on him. "I suppose it would have been good to tell you that teleportation would come with some temporary side effects, but it would seem too late…"

"_Teleportation Successful."_

"You better explain why it took all thirty-five seconds to connect the teleporter, and it better be good!" Knuckles said angrily, standing up as he glared at the doctor.

"You know, some zombies were here and… ya, but how could it have been hard? Their couldn't have been so many zombie so early." The doctor said, slowly tilting his eyes over to Tails as he examined something strange he was holding.

The fox coughed, looking tired as he let the Tails doll dangle at his side. Tails hadn't thrown up, but he sure felt drained for a bit. He let himself rest on the metal bar surrounding the mainframes platform, looking at Edwards glance as he noticed he was looking at the doll.

"Miles, where did you get that… thing?" The brown fox asked with a high amount of suspicion.

"You mean this doll?" Tails asked as he held the blue eyed doll by the twin tails. "Sonic got it from that strange box; it was beside the teleporter in the theater."

"Hey Doc, you listening? We were almost killed by hellhounds!" Knuckles shouted with an angry Sonic backing him up as Tails slowly himself joined in.

"Yeah Edward, what took you so god damn long?" The mild mannered Tails questioned.

"There were hellhounds? But there wasn't any over here, so could that mean…" The doctor mumbled to himself.

"'Mean', what?" Sonic asked, crossing his arms as he held the awkward gun plainly within sight as a chance for Edward to distract them from his games.

"Uh… what is that strange little weapon you have their Sonic? You should let me see it." Edward avoided their questions, grumbling as both Sonic and Knuckles were getting incredibly annoyed with his crap.

"Whatever, take a look." The hedgehog muttered while handing the gun over as the crazy and now somewhat naked doctor examined it.

He couldn't help but feel like this gun was similar to one of his designs, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. It looked like a previous drawing he made of one of his three wonder weapons that he had created, but showed itself to be quite the old piece of work.

The doctor decided to fire it himself to see what it could do, pressing down the trigger and hearing a click as he sighed impatiently.

"Sonic, you do have any ammo for this weapon?" He asked.

"Of course, doctor." Sonic grumbled, handing over one of the batteries used for the old gun.

Richtofhen had to take a good look at the battery, reading the 'Atomic cold cell' sticker that was labeled onto it.

"Atomic cold cell battery… why my god, this weapon has element 115 in it! But who could have made such a device other than me? And why does it wreak of age?" He questioned the unknown and beyond.

Shaking his head, the doctor pulled back on the three tiny arches on the back of the gun, opening as it revealed a tiny hole in the nozzle where the old battery popped out and fell to the ground. Edward stuck the newer battery in as he pushed the back frame back in, humming as the gun returned to life.

Then the moment of truth came as he pressed the trigger and the green orb shot out and crashed with the wall, splashing out a green vapour for a second as it left a small black smear on the wall.

"Interesting… I think it deserves a name other than strange gun, so I suggest we call it the 'Ray Gun'." Richtofhen said to the three mobians as they could hardly care what he called it.

"Call it whatever you want, it shoots, end of story." Knuckles exclaimed, sighing as he fiddled with his empty double barrel and M14.

"Where is the next teleporter we need to connect, Edward?" Tails inquired back to their objective.

"Well, I did just lose my coat thanks to a vomiting hedgehog, so I'll need another outfit to continue on." The brown fox said as he stroked his own fur, groaning as he felt the soft texture of his dazzling coat.

"I think it's a good idea to get him back in some clothes, he really creeps me out doing that…" Sonic muttered, feeling sick again as he watched Edward practically fondle himself. "But where are we finding some clothes for you?"

"Well, since you won't trust me staying here and since you don't know that, I'll be accompanying you to Maxis's office, where he has his room and plenty of uniforms for me to choose from." He giggled with delight.

"Guess the doctor likes to play dress-up." Knuckles whispered into Sonics ear as they both snickered.

"No objections? Then let us be-"

"_**Not so fast, intruders…"**_

"It sounds like me…" Tails spoke, shivering as a cold chill ran threw his entire body. "Just like me…"

"_**I must bring myself to reap and reave the flesh hiding your tainted souls, releasing and bringing you into the nether of the undead…"**_

"Would saying no thanks help?" Knuckles shouted out as an answer, hearing only a demonic laugh as the clouds turned pitch black in the sky above and thunder began to boom. The sky had turned a blood red along with the clouds, the same as they'd been at Station Square.

"Edward, what do we do?" Sonic asked the brown fox.

"You guys hardly have any ammo left, right? We should probably go through the containment section and take some from the armory in there… and pray we make it in time." He said slowly and quietly.

"Why? What is happening?" Tails asked, unwary of who was coming.

"_**You should know your own shadow, a reflection of the horrors and torment you've endured and have come back to torment you..."**_

"Don't listen to his madness, Miles! He is far beyond insane, unlike me, he is complete madness!" Edward shouted over to the fox, looking worriedly up at the sky.

"_**I'm coming for your SOULS!"**_

Large bolts of electricity were rushing down from the interior of the MDT-R as the laughing intensified. The four quickly backed away from the teleporter, Edward rushing over to the right side of the mainframe and trying to open the containment section.

The electricity finally dispersed in a wide range, passing around the mobians as it quickly dissolved into nothing and left a staggering image within the MDT-R's hull.

There stood a yellow two tailed fox with a soft white patch of fur covering his chest. He looked every bit like Tails, but with blood covering much of his body, much of which was not his own. The foxes head was tilted down, three bangs dangling in front of his face as a wicked smile spread across his barely visible mouth.

Tails looked in astonishment and horror at the replica of his image. It really looked like a horrible reflection, like what he was destined to become. But he shook his head, backing away from the clone as the creature tilted its head up.

With blood red eyes that glowed, it growled lowly as it also chuckled at the sight of its original.

"_**Bring me 115…"**_


End file.
